To provide a picture coding method and apparatus whereby the copy wherein photographic pictures and the pictures other than the photographic pictures are mixed is so compressed and so coded efficiently as to make suppressible the using the amount of the memory of the apparatus.

A region deciding portion 3 investigates every line of a picture in succession the presence or absence of a photographic region including the photographic picture in each line, to decide whether a region is the photographic region or the region other than the photographic region. A coding-method determining portion 4 selects respectively for the region other than the photographic picture a first coding method suitable to it, and for the photographic picture a second coding method suitable to it. By the selected coding methods, a coding portion 5 performs coding for the photographic region and the region other than the photographic region, every plural lines including the respective regions. The coding-method determining portion 4, after altering its selective coding method, suppresses the further alteration of its selective coding method with respect to a predetermined number of lines.